Plaintiffs asserted HEA 1337 “imposes an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose an abortion because it bars that choice under certain circumstances, even if the pregnancy is in its early stages and the fetus is not viable.”

The state argued HEA 1337 was a new kind of statute that (Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Se. Pa. v. Casey) did not anticipate. Because technological advances can now reveal the race, sex and anomalies of unborn babies, a woman could to choose an abortion if the baby is not “to her liking,” which runs counter to the state’s “well-established interest in prohibiting discrimination.”

Indiana became the second state to prohibit abortions based on an unborn baby’s race and disability in 2016, following North Dakota in 2013. A handful of states also prohibit sex-selection abortions.

Signed by then-Gov. Mike Pence, the law prohibits abortion doctors from knowingly aborting an unborn baby solely because of a genetic abnormality such as Down syndrome, the unborn baby’s race or sex. The bill also has several other abortion-related measures, including a requirement that aborted or miscarried babies’ bodies be cremated or buried and that abortionists who have hospital admitting privileges renew them annually.

Unborn babies of color are discriminatorily targeted for abortion at extremely high rates. While black Americans constitute 13 percent of the U.S. population, 35 percent of the babies killed in abortions are black, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Many believe that Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities also target black women for abortions. One analysis found that the abortion chain placed 79 percent of its abortion facilities within walking distance of minority neighborhoods.

The groups that signed the friend-of-the-court brief in support of the law argued that the legislation protects individuals against modern eugenics.

In the brief, the groups argued that the Indiana law “survives constitutional scrutiny because the Supreme Court has never recognized a right to abort an unborn child because of his or her sex, genetic abnormality, or disability and because it furthers the State of Indiana’s interest in protecting unborn human life by preventing sex and disability discrimination against unborn children. It also promotes the State’s interest in drawing a clear boundary against postnatal eugenic infanticide.”